Corot painted four large panels, representing 'Morning', 'Noon', 'Evening' and 'Night', to decorate the studio at Fontainebleau of his friend and fellow painter Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. They are the largest decorative cycle by the artist to survive intact, and a bravura demonstration of his skill in improvising landscape compositions that are subtly interrelated in both colour and form. To Decamps's astonishment, Corot completed the cycle in a single week. The paintings were later owned by the British painter, Frederic Leighton of Stretton.
